Sunday, September 5, 2010

Cele must quit if he lied - DA

Johannesburg - National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele should resign if it is found that he lied to Parliament about who was responsible for renting two buildings for top police staff at high prices, the DA said on Sunday.

"If it is found during the special investigating unit (SIU's) probe that Cele misled the police portfolio committee on Friday, then the Democratic Alliance will have no option but to call for his resignation," DA spokesperson Dianne Kohler Barnard in a statement.

Kohler Barnard was referring to a report by the Sunday Times that alleged Cele had lied to the parliamentary committee about two police rental deals, for buildings in Pretoria and Durban that amounted to over R700m.

Cele said his role had ended with identifying the police's accommodation needs and that he had left the rest up to the department of public works.

He had then attempted to blame three generals who had resigned soon after an investigation was launched to probe approved suspect deals worth billions since 2006.

Fired

Generals Stefanus Terblanche, Matthews Siwundla and Hamilton Hlela were accused of playing a key role in approving the rental deals for new police headquarters.

"Two of the generals (however) claim they were effectively fired and forced out because they refused point blank to sign off on the Roux Shabangu (landlord) deals, as they were for unnecessary and extremely expensive offices," Kohler Barnard said.

She said there were now two versions of what had happened, with Cele saying he had approached the SIU to investigate police property deals, while the department of public works claimed it was responsible for launching investigations.

The rental of a building in Durban, now cancelled by the public works department, would have cost R6m a month.

The building in Pretoria has been rented for about eight months at a cost of R2m a month.

The DA would submit parliamentary questions to Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on various rental issues on Monday.